Modern business organizations are subject to a greater degree of regulatory scrutiny than ever before. Regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) impose specific reporting and record keeping requirements on certain classes of businesses. For instance, the record keeping requirements may specify the length of time certain categories of documents must be maintained. Records may be kept longer than the specified time, but cannot be destroyed earlier than the specified time period. As an example, certain types of documents must be retained for a minimum of seven years.
In order to assist with the proper retention of electronic documents, companies may utilize an official file repository. An official file repository is a storage location, typically on a server computer, into which electronic files may be placed for archival. Once placed into the proper location within the official file repository, documents are automatically retained for the appropriate period of time. An official file repository is typically administered by the records manager or compliance department within an organization. By utilizing an official file repository for important documents, users can be assured that their electronic files are properly archived and retained for an appropriate period of time.
Although official file repositories provide a convenient way to ensure that a file is retained in a proper manner, the available software products for implementing an official file repository suffer from a number of drawbacks. First, users frequently work within a collaborative environment or within an application program executing on their desktop computer. Users do not work directly within the official file repository. As a result, users often fail to place important files in the repository. Additionally, even when a user remembers to place a file in the repository, it is often difficult or inconvenient for a user to specify the appropriate meta-data, or property values, when storing files in the official file repository. As a result, users are unlikely to provide the data when submitting files to the official file repository. Consequently, the records manager or another employee in the compliance department must manually assign meta-data to files received at the official file repository. This can be a time consuming process.
Another drawback with the available software products for implementing an official file repository is that these products utilize proprietary interfaces. As a result, it is often difficult to use these products from within a large number of application programs. Moreover, because the interfaces are proprietary, it is often difficult for an application program to learn about the file types that may be stored within the official file repository and the property values that should be provided with a file of a particular type. These limitations can be especially frustrating for organizations attempting to utilize an official file repository software package with their preferred desktop or collaboration software packages.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.